US President Plans to Protect Domestic Networks from Cyberattacks

Trump has recently signed an executive order to improve the US computer networks in order to protect critical infrastructure from online attacks. There is a plan to enhance the network security of the government agencies that suffered high-profile data breaches in the past. According to the plan, the agency heads will be responsible for introducing risk management measures and keeping their systems up-to-date. Critical infrastructure operators, including those providing utilities, financial and health networks, will be required to find ways to better defend their networks.

For example, two years ago, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) revealed that it had been a target of a data breach where the records of over 20 million US citizens leaked. At the time, the authorities accused China of the breach.

In the meantime, digital rights advocacy group Access Now claimed that the executive order issued only incremental changes to existing policies, while failing to cover a number of critical areas, including the insecurity of “Internet of Things” devices, data breaches, or vulnerability disclosure. Access Now criticized the way the executive order carved out a role for the military in protecting critical infrastructure as well.

Now Trump’s American Technology Council has 3 months to develop a plan to turn the outdated, fragmented government systems into “one or more consolidated network architectures” or “shared IT services, including email, cloud and cybersecurity services”.

The move follows Donald Trump’s recent promise to strengthen the government’s ability to protect its computer networks. However, it must be also mentioned that Trump is currently under intense scrutiny over his decision to fire former FBI director James Comey, who was investigating the alleged Russian hacking in presidential election. Still, independent experts don’t support the idea with the involvement of the Russians – it is clear that there were over nation-states including China and Iran that were also motivated to launch cyberattacks against the US. As such, the executive order is believed to be not a Russia-motivated issue, but rather a United States of America-motivated issue.